Analysis and Observations
The Rings of Jupiter are not inside the atmosphere and rather than being made of crystal, Jupiter's rings are formed by charged (dust) particles of various sizes. Most of these particles are very tiny (about 1 micrometre across). There are two forces that are exerted on these particles by Jupiter: a gravitational force and an electromagnetic force. The gravitational force is stronger than the electromagnetic force for particles with size of 1 micrometre and it provides the centripetal acceleration that is required to keep these particles in circular motion around Jupiter.
Throughout their lifetimes these particles are ground down by the energetic particles that are abundant in Jupiter's magnetosphere and eventually they become so small (about 0.03 micrometre across) that the electromagnetic force overpowers the gravitational force and the particles leave the rings and fall into Jupiter's atmosphere. The average lifetime of these particles is about 1000 years, a very short time by cosmological standards.
However, Jupiter's rings are a permanent feature because these tiny particles are regenerated continually by collisions of interplanetary Micrometeoroids with boulder-size objects within the rings.
Swann's total observations lasted for about 20 minutes. He made no mention of the many moons of Jupiter, which as of February 2004 counted 63. The raw data comprised only four pages. But according to Swann the confirmatory data appeared throughout the published scientific and technical articles and papers. It was decided that all of these should be included in their entirety to ensure that no scientific passage was inadvertently used out of context. The feedback data therefore amounted to about 300 pages. Swann states, "Only the mountains remained unconfirmed. When skeptics elected to amuse themselves regarding the Probe it was this single item they focused on."
An examination by Randi of the 65 statements made by Ingo Swann and Harold Sherman concluded that 37 percent of the statements were incorrect. Of the statements, 7 were correct yet obvious, 11 were correct and available widely in reference books, 5 were probably true (scientific speculation), one was correct but not available from reference books, 9 were too vague to verify, 2 were probably incorrect and 30 were certainly incorrect. Randi's evaluation of the 31 claims about Jupiter by Swann identified 6 as true, 1 as very likely, 3 as probable, 4 as obvious, 1 as "probably not," 11 as wrong, 1 as "not known," and 4 criticized for being vague or nonspecific in various ways, e.g., "it's liquid" and "surface gives high infrared count, and heat is held down."
Read more about this topic: Ingo Swann, Swann's Jupiter Rings
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